How Does Your Garden Grow?

Summer is here! For as long as I can remember, summer has meant gardening. Each winter my mom would pour over a seed catalogue and plot out her space, finding new varieties and involving us kids in choosing vegetables to grow and harvest. She made rows and planted. She watered and weeded. She protected her plants from rabbits and soccer balls, and each month as new things ripened, her persistence payed off— and we all benefitted.

It’s the start of my second summer in a new (old) house with a new (overgrown) yard. A few weeks ago I was walking my aunt around for a spring tour. While the kids squealed on the swings, I pointed out the good the bad and the ugly we inherited from nature and the previous owners: maples, pines, violets, hostas, peonies, service berries, tons of buckthorn, ivy, dandelion, lilies, the list goes on. “As much we’re planning what to plant”, I told her, “the bigger project is getting rid of all the junk.”

Isn’t that what gardening is though? In order to be successful growers we have to fertilize and nurture, yes, but also cut down trees, pull off worms, and dig up invasive weeds which would take over if we let them. We choose what to plant and what to eradicate, what to cultivate and encourage, what to let grow wild. Those choices shape our gardens like those choices shape our lives.

Are you a good gardener or do you prefer plastic succulents? :) What are you growing in your life, in your relationships, in your community this summer? What are you digging up to prioritize what’s important? What wild thing are you cutting back so it doesn’t take over? What are you hoping to harvest? Gardening takes vision, intention, care and getting dirty sometimes. The summer months fly by and at the end of it it’s easy to be lost in a tangle of circumstantial happiness that crowds out eternal joy.

This year I missed the time to start seeds inside altogether and bought some seedlings at the grocery store. I didn’t forget them in the trunk (good start) and set them in a sunny patch by the patio door, assuming I’d get around to planting them in the next day or two. But it was cold… then I hadn’t planned what to plant where yet… then I didn’t have time… and when I did, I didn’t feel like it… a couple weeks went by. An hour before we were supposed to leave for my parents’ on Memorial Day, I was rushing around the kitchen and noticed them, still waiting, limp and forlorn. They wouldn’t survive another day or two. I had to get them in the ground.

There wasn’t time for perfect plans or fancy trellises. I threw those babies into the dirt, tucked them in and turned on the sprinkler for ten minutes while we loaded the car, confident that sun and room for roots would be just what the doctor ordered. When we got back from our trip I went straight out to the yard and there they were, happily settled, reaching their little leaves to the sky. “Why didn’t I do this weeks ago?” I thought. Perfectionist meets procrastinator.

Sometimes I get too fancy, too worried about having the right tools to cultivate the perfect summer bucket list or the perfect get-together. I forget what we need most is the basics: the rich soil of God’s word and the power of prayer. As we look forward to vacations and weeks of warmth, I encourage you to do whatever it takes to grow closer to Jesus:

1. Make a plan to stay in the Word. Can you attend a summer Bible Study? Do you have a Bible reading schedule you follow? Read a Psalm each day? Doesn’t have to be fancy just simple, and daily.

2. Pray consistently. Pray alone and with others. Can you use the habit of mealtime prayers as a springboard for 3X a day prayers from the heart? Praise God, thank Him, ask, seek, knock.

3. Commit to regular fellowship at church. Don’t skip out just because it’s summer, or because you can watch something online. Online church is like tossing a little water on those plants by the patio door. It works for a while but is a poor substitute for the support of fellow believers, in person, encouraging and keeping each other accountable. The Bread of Life himself comes to us in Word and sacrament at church. Who wants to pass that nourishment up?

Maybe you have elaborate perennial beds that bloom in sequence from spring to fall. Maybe you can heirloom tomatoes and give homemade jam as gifts at Christmas. Maybe you have a bean in a styrofoam cup on the window sill, that your kid planted for you at preschool. :) Maybe you get coffee and a scone at the farmer’s market once in a while. Maybe like me, you’re somewhere in-between. Whatever your level of green thumb, we are all gardeners of the heart. Let your roots for Jesus run deep this season. Cut back the less important things that crowd out your time with him in prayer, in the Word, or at church. And be vigilant! Worldly to-dos, “coulds and shoulds” are like the worst weeds. If they start to creep back in (and they will!), God is forgiving. Recommit to putting Him first and cut back again. Choose to nurture your faith first and watch God bless your harvest.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:1-2, 5, 8